Multiple Ethnic, Racial, and Cultural Identities in Action: From Marginality to a New Cultural Capital in Modern Society

Abstract

Although the rapid immigration, migration waves, and population movements that are occurring at the beginning of this millennium are not a new phenomena, what is new are their magnitude and the adaptive strategies of immigrants and migrants. The position is that immigrants must possess a unique skill and flexibility to acquire and manage different identities so they can co-exist and function without conflicts in different contexts simultaneously. Latino immigrants, especially, used to be conceived as "handicapped" because of their experience of oppression and their low economic status. They were seen as lacking the necessary cultural capital to succeed at the level of mainstream populations. However, as demographics change, those individuals who can best function in a diverse society will have a large cultural capital and greater ability to function effectively. The mastery of different languages, the ability to cross racial and ethnic boundaries, and a general resiliency associated with the ability to endure hardships and overcome obstacles will clearly be recognized as a new cultural capital that will be crucial for success in a modern diversified society, not a handicap. The hypothesis is that oppression and abuse can also generate precisely the opposite-resiliency and cultural capital to succeed. Often, these create the psychological flexibility necessary to assume different identities in order to survive. That is, the mechanisms that marginalize certain persons of color may turn into a cultural capital in other settings.